Tuesday, February 3

Advocate for Public Education Before Provincial Budget Releases on Feb 17

On
behalf of the Dickens PAC, I attended the Vancouver District Parent
Advisory Council (DPAC) Citywide workshop on Jan 29. The key topic - apropos to the Dickens enrollment/space issues - was advocacy. During this meeting, both letter-writing campaigns and petitions began to call
on the Gov't to implement the recommendations of the Select Standing
Committee on Finance and Government Services for increased Education Funding in the 2015 Budget. The Provincial Gov't is running a
surplus of >$400M and the new budget will be released on February 17 just two weeks from now.The finance committee has released its
budget recommendations. Two things to note regarding education: It was
by far the top priority for citizens who responded to the committee’s
poll, and the committee’s recommendations at pp 24-25 include “adequate”
funding that enables school boards to fulfill their mandates and do
necessary maintenance, and “adequate” capital funding for new schools
where they are required. Click here to read the report.Our
collective voice is strong when we advocate together. I urge everyone -
parents, soon-to-be parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, educators and all concerned citizens to take action now!

What You Can DoContact
your MLA, the premier, the minister of finance, and the minister of
education and tell them you are concerned about the under-funding of our
public education system. Demand better for our children and our
society.

Email your MLA (likely Mabel Elmore or Jenny Kwan) using the MLA Finder to find contact information for your representative in the Legislature.

The DPAC has posted a form letter that you can use. You can remove the petition piece, and adapt it to your
situation (as a parent/guardian/grandparent/student/citizen) and email and/or mail it
to the above addresses.***It helps the Dickens PAC and our overall advocacy on your behalf if you CC dickens.pac@gmail.comwhenever you email any government employee (at any level) or any VSB trustee etc. Why?
It gives the PAC knowledge of parent/neighbourhood numbers which we can
then use to our advantage when in discussions with these various
entities. Please help us help you!***Thank you,